Ninotsminda

Ninotsminda (Georgian ნინოწმინდა, Armenian Նինոծմինդա; Ниноцминда Russian ) is a town in south Georgia, Samtskhe - Javakheti in the region. It is the administrative seat of the homonymous municipality and has about 6100 inhabitants Ninotsminda ( 2009). Nearly 96 % of the inhabitants of the municipality are Armenians, only 1.4 % are ethnic Georgians.

Location

Ninotsminda is located about 110 km south-west of the state capital crow Tbilisi and 65 kilometers south-east of the regional capital Akhaltsikhe on the Akhalkalaki plateau, a plateau which extends southwest of up to 3300 m high mountain Samsara train of the Lesser Caucasus. Through the town of Agritschai which located the two kilometer west of the village flows, partially drained lake Chantschali drained and five kilometers north-east in the right Kura Creek Parawniszqali ( Parawani ) opens. About 20 kilometers southwest of Ninotsminda is the tri-border region of Georgia with Armenia and Turkey.

Due to the location in nearly 2000 m altitude, the climate is harsh - the average January temperature is -10.6 ° C, the mean July temperature is only 13.1 ° C - and of rainfall per year relative humid with average 733 mm.

History

The territory of the present-day city was inhabited in the middle of the 6th century; there are ruins of a large stone church from this period.

Later, the area was part of the Ottoman Empire. The place was known as Altinkale (also Altunkale ), Turkish for "Golden Castle ". In the war of 1828/29, the area was conquered by the Russian Empire, which allowed there in the 1840s, the settlement of members of the religious community of the Doukhobors. They founded the for this reason later Duchoborje in the Russian area called a total of 18 villages, including 1842 site of the present Ninotsminda the significant because of its central location Bogdanowka (Russian Богдановка, " given by God " from Russian).

Part of this Doukhobors immigrated in the 19th century to Canada and founded, among others, two villages named Bogdanovka at Langham and Pelly, Saskatchewan. Others remained in Bogdanowka and environment; many of their descendants were resident there until the 1990s, when in reality, they all moved to the attainment of independence by Georgia to Russia.

In the Soviet period Bogdanowka 1930 administrative center of a Rajons same name and was in the 1960s, the status of an urban-type settlement. In 1983, the town rights. In 1991 after the " Illuminator of Georgia ", the Holy Nino (Georgian Zminda Nino ) renamed Ninotsminda.

Note: 1969-2002 census data, in 2009 calculation

Economy and infrastructure

In Ninotsminda there are smaller companies in the food and light industry. The place is surrounded by an agricultural area.

The city lies on the electrified with 3000 V DC railway line, which in Marneuli ( station Marabda ) of the route Tbilisi - Yerevan branches off and leads by Akhalkalaki ( kilometer 142) - Gyumri. Its construction began in the 1980s; However, due to political and economic difficulties of the line could start regular operation after the year 2000. It is planned to develop it as a section of the railway project Kars - Baku.

By Ninotsminda leading European Road 691, which branches in the Turkish Khorasan from the E 80, south whales crossed the border into Georgia and extends further to Armenia, where they Gyumri in Ashtarak e reaches 117 and thus the shortest road link between Turkey and Armenia's whose direct limit is closed. In Ninotsminda branches a following on wide sections of the railway line road over Zalka to Tbilisi from the shortest route in the state capital.